Step 1

Read the scenario.

Assume you are thinking about starting a business and would like to forecast your cash needs for the next six months. You expect sales to be approximately $30,000 per month for the first 12 months and your purchases to support sales will be approximately 60% of sales. You anticipate about 20% of your sales will be cash and 80% collected the following month. Your supplier has agreed to extend credit for 70 days at no cost (i.e. you will pay your bills on a two month lag). Your monthly expenses for rent, wages, utilities, and so forth will be approximately $3,500 per month. You have deposited $15,000 in a checking account to begin your operations and would like to maintain a minimum balance of $5,000 in that account.

Step 2

Create a simple monthly cash budget.

Create a spreadsheet file that contains a simple monthly cash budget for the next year for the business described in the above scenario.